two nights with the lion of desolation
by fasterassembly
Summary: On the last leg of their spirit world vacation, Korra and Asami discover a library haunted by a troublesome spirit.


"I don't think you're that scary," Korra said. "Maybe next time you go to Republic City, you should… wear a cute hat?"

The spider spirit scowled up at her. "Avatar, will a hat change my legs or my eyes?"

"No." Korra shifted her weight on the tree trunk. She was pretty sure her butt was numb. The sun moved in strange cycles, looping in on itself as it crossed the sky. It had, by her estimation, returned to more or less the same spot it had started when the first of the spirits came to ask her for help; the thought of it filled her with something close to despair.

"Then you see the problem! Change my shape, Avatar! Make me into a different creature."

"That's not really one of my specialties. Look, here. You came with your friend…" A plump spirit, shaped like a rice ball with mouse ears and a nubby nose, let out a little wheeze nearby a dandelion. "And I'm sure if you went with your friend, the people there would know you're a spirit and not just… a really big spider."

"I'm asthmatic," the plump spirit said. "The air here is better for my lungs."

"But you don't _have_—okay, I've thought of something." She plucked a few bright red flowers, strung them together into a ring, and put it on the spider spirit's head. "There. No one's going to bother you now. And if you want, one of the airbenders will be happy to give you a ride around."

The spider peered at its reflection in a small puddle, then nodded to Korra. "Thank you, Avatar," it said. "I'm going to Republic City now. I'll tell my friends to wear flowers, too. Come here." The plump spirit wobbled over to the spider spirit and got onboard. They gave short little bows, then went on their way.

Once they were out of sight, Korra rolled off the tree stump. She stretched her arms, then her legs, then got up carefully. Hamstrings were still tight from sitting for so long. She rolled her shoulders as she walked over to the tree where Asami was reading a book—had been reading a book. Asami had fallen asleep mid-read, her face turned towards the shade, hair flowing into the shadow, mouth covered by the cream pages of the book. Her right hand spread out across the book's back, her legs were tucked close to her body. Korra knelt beside Asami, ignoring the way the muscles on the top of her thighs tugged at her bones.

"Hey," she said. "Hey, I'm all done now."

Asami's eyelids unstuck from one another. She shut them again, smiling beneath her pages. "Mm," she said and yawned.

"Some of your lipstick's rubbed off on the book!" Korra said, removing the book from Asami's face. Even in the spirit world, Asami still took the time to apply her makeup, a dab of eyeshadow and mascara and a slash of lipstick, done in minutes without a thought. The shape of Asami's lips were just a smudge on the page. Korra held the book at arm's length and said, "I'm going to give this a kiss. Mwah!"

"Oh, you have enough time to give my _book_ a kiss, but not me?" Asami said. "Being the Avatar really keeps you busy."

Korra set the book down in the grass, careful to keep Asami's place, and bent down for a kiss. It still felt like she was getting away with something, as though someone might grab Korra by the shoulder and demand to know what she was doing. But the feeling dissolved in a second, broken by the rush of pleasure running down from her mouth to her chest, pulling up at her stomach.

Asami sat up and broke the kiss. Her eyes swept across the Spirit World, surveying, then landed on Korra. Her smile widened.

"What a nice day," she said.

* * *

Not all the spirits came to Korra because they had problems. Some of them came just to say hello, others wanted information, and still others wanted to test Korra's power: a spirit dragon that pretended to terrorize its friends, then belched bubbles of approval once Korra got on his back and wrestled him onto the ground. Then the dragon took Korra on a quick ride, spiraling up into the air and looping back down.

"Do you mind giving my friend a ride, too?" Korra said to the dragon spirit once they were done fighting.

"No problem," the spirit said, lowering his head. Korra beckoned Asami over.

"Are you sure?" Asami said, climbing on behind Korra despite her reservations. "What if the dragon disappears partway through?"

"It'll be fine! Besides, airbender, remember?"

"Right," Asami said, and wrapped her arms around Korra, just in case. The dragon's body flexed between her thighs. She had just enough time to think, 'I should take notes,' before he shot up into the air.

Air bison were smooth rides, except for the ascents. She loved hot air balloons for their simplicity and elegance and, of course, the danger. Airships were luxurious, smooth, full of the hum and vibrations of machines, air gliders were—well, she had only tagged on a few times, and all she was willing to say about it was that physics were not in her favor.

Dragons were completely different—almost like they were swimming through the air, with the way his body lashed from side-to-side. Each gulp of air the dragon took rippled all the way down his body. He couldn't go in a straight line, but instead wagged his way through the air, each wave smooth and every stroke full of pride in its power and strength.

"Where are we going?" Asami said.

"Oh… I didn't think about that," Korra said. "Excuse me! Where are you taking us?"

"Hrrmmph," the spirit dragon said, which seemed to be a shrug.

"You don't mind if we land in about five minutes, right? He said he's taking us somewhere home-y."

"You got all that from 'hrmph?'"

"Haha! Are you holding up okay back there?"

"Am I holding on too tight? Oh!" Her hands had, somehow, migrated up to cup Korra's breasts. "I don't know why that keeps happening," she said, dropping her hands to Korra's waist.

"I can think of a few reasons."

"Korra, no."

"_Bosom buddies_. Ow!"

"I could really learn a lot from the way your friend is flying," Asami said, turning to look over her shoulder. "A new kind of submarine, so we can see what's really down there in the water. Do you know that we know less about what's on the ocean floor than we do about the spirit world?"

"I've never thought of that at all," Korra said. "You're amazing. Really. You're always thinking of new possibilities, new places…"

The clouds whipped around them in streams of pale pink, colored by the light bending off the dragon's red scales.

* * *

The dragon dropped them off on the side of a burning mountain.

"Okay, really?" Korra said.

"This is how it always is," the dragon said, and flew off.

It wasn't so bad. Most of the fire had eaten its way all the way to the top of the mountain. They were upwind from the flames. Nearly everything had been burned down except for a few charcoal monuments dipping pathetically towards the horizon. Red and teal shoots poked out of the black soil. Across from them was an entire chain of mountains, each one in varying states of regrowth: dark and ashy to the west, and the yellow-green of new life to the east.

"I wonder if the fire's a spirit, too," Korra said, standing on her toes.

"You're not going to go rushing up there, are you?"

"Nah. I don't need to. I think… whatever it is, it's just doing its job, you know? It's all about renewal and… the cycle of… life." Korra gestured up at the sky in the nervous way she usually did when she was trying to be tactful. What was she trying to be tactful about? Oh. Her dead father, lost twice now—once to betrayal, now for good. They had waited until after his funeral to come here. Not that there had been much of one, for a man so disgraced.

"I didn't think places like this existed here," Asami said. "I thought it was peaceful and quiet."

"The spirit world's just as dangerous as anywhere else. Things can change quickly and if you're not careful... If something happens, if you see anything, or hear..."

"Like what? What am I going to see?"

"Your father—your father, I mean."

"Why would I see him?" she said. "I wouldn't forget that he's gone. I don't see why you had to bring him up."

"I didn't bring him up to make you feel bad. Some of the spirits are dangerous. I don't want you to be hurt."

You could never fault Korra for her earnestness or the goodness of her motives, but sometimes you just wanted to bonk her on the head. She had done her mourning, stuck it into an urn, and was now here at the peak of a heady love with no trough in sight. Hurt? Hurt by what? It seemed beyond conception.

"You're sweet," Asami said. "But really, I'm fine. Let's get the tent up somewhere flat."

"Oh, that's easy." She kicked the ground with her heel. And just like that, before Asami could even contemplate the best orientation to prevent them from tumbling into the dusty ash, there was a perfect platform for camping, earthbent by the Avatar herself. Korra grinned and put her arm around Asami's shoulders, draping her satisfaction around them both.

* * *

One good thing about this mountain: the quiet. They had a light dinner, talked aimlessly until they got tired, then turned in so they could get an early start for tomorrow. They got into the bedroll. Asami had her arm around Korra's waist. Then, just as Korra reached the border of sleep despite the midafternoon sun beating on the other side of the tent, Asami began to rub small circles into her back.

"Are you awake?" Asami said. Her thumb dipped low into the small of Korra's back. "I just realized… it's been more than a few hours since anyone's come to interrupt us, hasn't it?"

"You're right," Korra said. Since word of Korra's arrival had spread, spirits would come barging in on them—not in a constant stream and sometimes hours apart, but always at inconvenient times. Out here, most of the spirits had been chased away by the fire. She slid closer to Asami and kissed her, then squeaked when Asami squeezed her ass.

"Too fast?" Asami said.

Korra thought of the other few times they had managed to sneak away from the spirits, and felt herself growing heated. It wasn't just the way Asami touched her, but how she looked at her, the smile that spread like a flame chasing the white on paper. And then there were the things she said! The most gentle things imaginable, and lines that, if shown on a mover slide, would burn down the theater. So far they had only managed secluded, surprising encounters, testing one another anew each time: yes, this is real, this is what I wanted when I took your hand and stepped into the portal—yes, yes, yes.

"No," she said, and pulled Asami in for a kiss. Asami hands slid up to Korra's hips, came around to her stomach, then dragged over her thighs, each movement hot and slow.

"Oh, that's beautiful," Asami said when Korra laid back on the ground. She was straddling Korra now, her long body casting a second shadow over Korra's chest. She kissed Korra's face, all around her mouth, as she worked on getting Korra's pants off, then started kissing down, from chin to neck, spreading out to Korra's shoulder. "I love your arms. You never fail to impress."

"I know," Korra said. "You're always—oh!" The heel of Asami's hand ground against her clit through her underwear. She ran out of quips after that as Asami drove her to one orgasm, then another.

"Mercy, mercy," she groaned when Asami's thumb circled her clit again. She kissed Asami hard, half to pour how much she had enjoyed it, how giddy it made her feel to be loved so much, and half to keep Asami from exhausting her completely. She entwined their fingers together, heating up when Asami smeared Korra's own slickness across her biceps and shoulders. Her whole lower body felt electric and wet and swollen; even now, with Asami's fingers on her shoulders, her cunt kept twitching, as though Asami was working her over all over again. She peeled off Asami's pajama pants and underwear. She looked up for permission, then spread her open.

She sighed, she panted, she got Korra beneath her again and rode her face until she came, brilliantly, on Korra's tongue. And when she was done, she tossed her hair over her shoulder as though she had just broken another Satomobile record, color high in her cheeks and all over her chest and thighs. She looked glamorous and wonderful, as though she had swallowed the moon and now glowed with its light.

* * *

"Has it happened already?"

Someone else, farther away from the first: "What? You mean the…"

"Love making." An indignant pause. "What would you say, then? 'Fornication?' _I_ say that if you come here and stay with one another for more than a day, more than two or three without trying to kill each other, doesn't that deserve a name far—"

She never should have told Asami to beware of weird voices talking in the spirit world, Korra thought groggily. Now she was hearing them herself.

She swatted at her ear a few times before determining that what she was hearing was definitely not coming from the tent or inside her head. She opened her eyes. Asami was still asleep beside her, one hand curled beneath her cheek and her other holding Korra's. Her grip was sleepy and easy to break. She was almost tempted to stay beneath the sheets, but now the two... whatevers outside were now bitterly bickering about the uses of tongues.

Outside, red grass was poking its way through the ashes around their tent. One of the burnt up trees had short, purple stalks springing out of its charcoaled body. There, sitting on the top of the stalks, was a snake scorpion and a mouse frog. Both were wearing tiny scholar hats with chinstraps.

"Hello?" she said, rubbing at her eye with the back of her fist.

"— smell it in the air," said the snake scorpion, flicking out its tongue. "Hello, Avatar Korra."

The mouse frog twittered, and brushed its whiskers with its tiny hands.

"Hi there," Korra said, bending down so she was eye level with both of them. "What are you two arguing about?"

"Molecules," said the snake scorpion.

"Sex," the mouse frog said, then chattered its teeth with excitement.

Korra tried to put her face in a mask of perfect blankness. "Are you two...?" It didn't seem like a likely pairing, but what did she know about probability these days?

"Rubbish!" cried the snake scorpion. "No, Avatar, let us introduce ourselves: we are scholars and traveling companions, scholars of the most esoteric yet pedestrian of subjects, the foundation of all higher thought yet also the most base of instincts, the most exalted…" The mouse frog kicked it. It cleared its throat. "Love. We're scholars of love. And desire. But love foremost."

"That sounds nice," Korra said. "I didn't know people studied that, but now I can't imagine why you wouldn't."

The mouse frog made a harsh chuffing noise. The two spirits spoke intensely between themselves for a minute. Then the snake scorpion said, "It would be our pleasure to invite you to our archives. We are proud historians of the Avatar and their habits. You may find something you do not know there."

"Oh, she'll find something there!" the mouse frog squeaked, and wheezed meanly.

"It's on the mountains with the hot springs and the castle with the silver bell. Not the one with the red bell, that one is full of spirits who will try to eat you." The snake scorpion did a little bow. Then it wrapped its friend into its body and slithered away without saying a farewell.

And just as strangely as they had entered her life, they left it.

* * *

By the time Asami woke up, the sun had set on the mountain and a furious red carpet of wild grass grew over the black ash. Green and purple flowers poked between the grass blades. When she sat down with her sketchbook, a small flurry of mosquito bees flew away from her, hollering, "Why, I never!"

"Sorry!" she said as they buzzed away.

Korra had woken before her and was earthbending boulders into the air, then bringing them back down softly with airbending. She was more conscientious of her power now that she had come so close to losing it—not to bloodbending, but to herself. Asami tried to imagine the Korra who first arrived at Republic City doing this exercise and laughed quietly to herself. That brash girl who had said to Asami's face that she had assumed on first look that Asami was a stuck-up priss, having enough finesse for that?

"What's so funny?" Korra said, airscootering over. She pouted. "I know you're laughing at me."

"Only a little," Asami said, bending awkwardly around the whipping ball of wind at knee height. It thrilled her when Korra's tongue flicked out boldly, still tasting of sex. She squeezed Korra's shoulder, the one with the dark shadow of her own mouth still evident on the inside, and said, "Let's go wash up."

They packed up the tent, had a small meal, and then prepared to leave the mountain. Grass grew wherever Korra walked. "Ugh," Korra said. "I wanted to practice firebending today, too."

"I like it," Asami said. "I think it's grand."

"I think you're grand," she said, beaming with wholesome pleasure. "Want to go to a library? Some spirits came up to me last night and invited us over."

"Are you going to burn it down?"

"I just might if that mouse frog is keeps snickering at me every time I look away! He was awful for a spirit who's studying love and desire. But I guess I'm curious what they know."

"I don't have a problem with it," she said. "I think it marks a new era, one where Avatar Korra reads books instead of punching spirits to get what she wants—"

"I haven't done that here! Yet." She wrinkled her nose. "We'll see."

* * *

The path leading up to the library was nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the forest. There was the bell, they found that easy enough, and there was something resembling a footpath, but after a while it got lost in the gardens.

"Gardens?" Korra said, and spat out some leaves. The branch that hit her in the face was still waving at her. Could trees laugh? She swore it was laughing.

"Some of the exiled Earth Kingdom nobles have gardens like these in Republic City," Asami said. "It's supposed to resemble nature while still being man-made. Do you like it?"

"I guess? Sounds like one of Huan's art projects."

Higher up, the trees fell away and led to a foggy road to the library. Rocks dominated the landscape, their shapes imposing and dark through the silver mist. They were greeted by a sparrow spirit, also wearing that dorky scholar hat.

"Welcome!" it chirped, and attempted to bow without losing its hat. "Ooh, we didn't think you'd actually come! Welcome, welcome."

"Hi," Korra said. "Pretty humid up here."

"We have hot springs in the back. We would be honored to have the Avatar and her lover relax in the hot, healing waters. But first, the books, the books, the books!" It let them around the library. "Here is where we keep the historical records, and over here you can see our analysis and extrapolations, built up over the ages. Take a look! Ask our librarians for help if you need any. I need to greet some other guests, but it was such a pleasure to meet you—do you mind signing my wing?"

It took a bit of spiritbending to get her autograph to stay on, but once it was on, it seemed as good as stuck. The sparrow spirit left them in the library, promising to bring them the head scholar as soon as it tracked him down.

They started off in the historical records, but the records didn't amount to much: inaccurate historical timelines, strange speculations, things that Korra swore were just complete lies. Some of the books were entirely blank. They took to grabbing ten books at a time and flipping through them, in search of an elusive fact.

"You really enjoyed that," Asami said after their third trip to the shelves. They were sitting on the floor near the back to avoid the other scholars.

"It's been a while since anyone's given me the star treatment," Korra said. "No one gets that excited to see me in Republic City. … Unless they have a really angry goosebear locked in their basement or something."

"I give you plenty of star treatment."

"I mean—not like that, I meant." She accepted the kiss to her cheek and Asami stroking a long, slow line down her spine with a small, hot smile.

After a while they migrated over to the other half of the library. The only spirit there was a deerpig snoozing away at the front desk. "Don't steal anything, please," it mumbled as they passed.

Nearly all of the books here were hand-bound and written. They were organized by avatar: half of a single shelf devoted to Korra's adventures, then rapidly expanding in volume for the other avatars. Aang's adventures alone spanned six or seven shelves. And within each shelf, the books were ordered by, it seemed, important personal interactions. She was looking for Sokka and Aang's friendship, but it was going to take her a while to find it.

Asami, meanwhile, was browsing through Korra's shelf. When Korra found two slim books that looked somewhat relevant—_Five Times Aang and Sokka Enjoyed Brothers-in-Laws' Delights and One Time They Did Not_ and _But, Your Sister…!_—she found Asami at the desk, her ears violently pink.

"Hey," she said, putting a hand on Asami's shoulder. Asami yelped, jumped up to her feet, and slammed the book into the table. "Whoa."

"K-Korra!" Asami said. "Oh, you frightened me."

"Good book?" she said.

"I… What are you holding? Is this about Avatar Aang? I'm sorry, but just let me take a look." She yanked the book out of Korra's hand and flipped through it.

"I'll take that as a recommendation." _Avatar Korra in the Swamps with Toph Bei Fong_. With a title like that, there'd be no mistake as to what you'd get when you open it up. She flipped it to the halfway point.

_"Let me go!" said Avatar Korra, but the long vines tightened around her limbs no matter how hard she struggled or tried to set herself free. They slid over her skin, one piling on top of the other, until they covered almost every inch of her from toe to neck, crisscrossing her shoulders and thighs._

_"My dear child, you shan't be free 'til you learn to submit to the ways of the forest," said the wise aged Toph Bei Fong. She raised her golden phallus-staff into the air. "Surrender, and know true freedom!"_

_"Never!" the rash Avatar shouted, then screamed when the first vine penetrated her sopping quim—_

"Aaaauugh?!" Korra shouted and sprang away from the desk. Asami handed her _But, Your Sister…! _She skimmed through it and… yup. Chapter heading: You've Never Seen a Boomerang Like My Penis. "This never happened!"

"Oh, really?"

"Really! At least, the stuff with Toph and the… the… But I don't think Aang would cheat on Katara like that, either!"

"They might have had an arrangement."

"Are you enjoying this?"

"I mean, I…" She fanned herself with But, Your Sister…! "It's not as bad as what they have in the Rose District."

"The what?"

"It's the area just before the Red Light District in Republic City. They sell racy weeklies and sometimes… You're a public figure and depending on… well, Avatar Korra makes appearances."

"Great," she said. "That's great."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." She took the book from Korra's hands and put it on the desk. "Do you want to go?"

"Yeah," Korra said.

The mouse frog spirit from the night before greeted them in the hall. "So you made it!" it said, leering. "Had fun? Did you try out the hot springs?"

"Shut up," Korra said. She saw Asami wince in sympathy for the mouse frog, but kept moving. She wondered if she had disappointed Asami somehow—but how did Asami not find it weird or upsetting to find all that—pornography, piled up on the shelves and lining the walls? Library. Some library!

Now a man was running after them, a man in brilliant yellow robes. "Wait, wait!"

She stopped. "All right," she said to the man. "Fine. You're the head scholar, aren't you?"

"Xi Tong," he said. "Please, Avatar, Avatar—"

"Korra?" she prompted.

"Avatar—" His lips quivered and he threw his arms around her. "Oh, it's just been so long since I've seen another human being!"

"Okay, whoa," Korra said. "Take it easy there. It's all right. Calm down and tell me what's wrong."

He stopped sniffing and said, "I can't explain it here. That spirit might be listening. Come up to my office."

* * *

His office was at the top of a tower, with metal doors and heavy locks at every turn. It was only when they stepped into the office that Xi relaxed. He slid into one of the two guest seats in front of his heavy desk.

"I'm sorry," he moaned. "It's been so long. I have to keep them out."

"Them?" Korra said, sitting across from him in the other chair.

"The spirits!"

She took a quick look at his robes. Not current Earth Kingdom fashion. His hat, too, looked like something she had seen in the old paintings hanging from the old Earth Queen's palace. The scholars there had looked dignified and snooty, and while Xi Tong had snooty in spades, he was definitely lacking in dignity.

"I don't understand," she said. "Most people who leave their bodies behind for the spirit world want to be here. You _knew_ what it would be like before you came."

"Did I?" he said, a little shrill. "I was young. They were going to torture me to death, me and six other of my friends, all because we passed some notes about leading a spirit world invasion—"

"You wrote _what_?"

"—like it could ever happen! No, what really got us was petitioning the Avatar to take down the Earth King. But the Avatar ignored us and when we were captured, he left us to die. I was in the dungeons for years and years before I arrived here. I couldn't go back. Three of my other friends came to the spirit world, too. We decided to continue our research and built this library. At first we wanted to go back to our bodies, so we studied the Avatar, the bridge between the two worlds… but then…"

"You just started writing stories?" Asami said, crossing her arms.

"They weren't always like that! The blank books once had hundreds of years of distilled thoughts and musings… but their words were lost when they were eaten by the spirit. When their lives ended, the ink burned away."

"What spirit?" Korra said. "Is it the one you're hiding from?"

"It lives here," Xi said. "It stalks these mountains. It's picking us us off one by one. Don't you ever wonder why there aren't more humans in the spirit world? It's because they've all been eaten—eaten up! And I'm the last one. Just me, alone."

Korra looked back to Asami, who shrugged. She mouthed, _What should I do?_ Asami mouthed something back—except there were too many words and Korra lost track of what she was saying somewhere around the second clause. _What?_ she said, squinting. This time it was a little easier: _Don't you want to help?_

She did. She turned back to Xi and said, "I can't guarantee anything, but I can try to find the spirit that's bothering you and see what it wants. You might have to move your library."

"I can't," he whimpered. "I can't. This is the only thing that proves me and my friends ever existed. What am I going to do if I have to go?"

* * *

The back of the library was a hotel complex. They were given a nice room with a view of the forest. Fog sat low on the ground, curled up around the tree trunks like a spectacular cat. Korra talked with some of the other spirits who stopped by their door, eager to meet the Avatar. Apparently this was considered a nice romantic getaway. She and Asami asked around about any other spirits lurking around, something large and powerful, and got nothing but a whole lot of "no ideas."

After a while they returned to their room and settled into the bed. It was nearing sunset in this part of the spirit world. According to the locals, there was a day-night cycle in these parts, with the night abbreviated to just four hours. It'd be worth to check it out after dark.

Just after they turned off the lights, Korra said, "Sorry. This wasn't what I had in mind when I brought you here."

Asami turned so they were facing each other. The bedcovers were thin and had white cranes printed against a dark blue field, captured in frozen flight. "It's all right," Asami said. "There's never a dull moment with you. You're the Avatar."

"That's the thing!" she said. "I know I'm the Avatar. But I didn't come here to be the Avatar. I just wanted to spend time with you." She looked so pitiable that Asami had to let her into her arms. For all the practice Korra had in sulking alone, she was surprisingly receptive to physical comfort. Really, she was taking to it like a champ.

"Next time we should rent a cabin in the woods," Asami said. "I can show you how to ski."

"Ugh." She rocked her forehead against Asami's neck and shoulder. "I bet all the trees will complain about the snow."

When they woke up, the sun was gone. Stars glared down from the sky. The fog seemed thinner but more menacing and mobile. Korra checked her watch.

"Just in time," Korra said. "Ready?"

"Ready," Asami said. She had her glove on, just in case. "Bolin and Mako are going to be so jealous when we get back."

Inside the hotel it was just as busy as it had been a few hours ago. Spirits were running about, some dripping water from recent soaks in the hot springs, some socializing and drinking. But the library was completely empty. Not a single wandering spirit between the shelves, no pitter-patter of animal feet. Asami's torch struggled to illuminate more than a few feet in front of them. When she directed it up, the light thinned out so much that it barely seemed to be there at all.

They went down to the basement of the historical records half of the library, tiptoeing through thin strips of clear space in an ocean of clutter. In the second level of the basement, they found a small room full of empty bookshelves. A desk was pushed against the eastern wall, and another desk stood across from it, with just enough space for them to stand between without squeezing through. Fog leaked in through the ceiling.

"I don't know if there's a point in going much further," Asami said. "We're already running out of room to navigate."

"Let's try summoning the spirit here, then," Korra said. She cleared her throat and said, "Hello! Anyone there? I'm Korra, the Avatar. I was hoping we could talk about those people you ate back then."

"Try saying 'allegedly ate.'"

"Oh, right. _Allegedly_ ate." The light from Asami's torch flickered again. Korra flinched. "Geeze, that's creepy."

"I don't know what's wrong with it," Asami said, turning the torch over and hitting the butt of it with the heel of her palm. "It was working fine a few nights ago in the cave."

"Why don't you give it a rest? I'll firebend." She held her hand up. "You've scared a lot of people, but I'm sure if we talk it out, we can find a way to understand each other." The flame in her hand went dim, then flared up brighter than before. "Whoa!" She extinguished it in surprise, then lit it again. "Hello? Can you hear me?" Another darkening followed by a return.

Asami turned her torch back on. "Let's set up a system," she said. "One for yes, two for no." The light went dim, then came back on. "I'm Asami Sato. This is the Avatar, Korra. Are you the spirit who has been haunting this library?"

Yes.

Korra let the flame in her hand go out. "Did you eat Xi Tong's friends?" she said.

Yes.

"Do you have a body so we can have a better conversation?"

Yes.

"Okay," Korra said, looking back at Asami with a shared look of exasperation. "Do you mind showing us that body?"

Yes.

"Wait, did you mean that you do mind and don't want to, or that you don't mind? Argh! What I meant was, can we have this conversation with your body instead?"

Asami's torch went on and off uncontrollably. The air grew cold. One of the bookshelves fell forward, bumping into another bookshelf and causing both to rock unsteadily. From far away, claws scratched against the stone floor. A lion osprey emerged out of the ground, its long mane bursting out into feathers and its limbs powerful and scaly and ending in claws. Its eyes were pure black.

"So I've been called," it said, with a scratchy little voice. Korra clenched her jaw to keep from snorting. "And yes, I know it sounds bad, that's why I don't like to talk to people! But you can't refuse a request from the _Avatar_ herself, after all."

"It's good to meet you face-to-face," Korra said. "Do you have a name?"

"Desire."

"So you're a spirit of desire?"

"That's also my name," it said patiently.

"And you're the one responsible for eating Xi's friends," Korra said.

Desire yawned. It jumped on top of the desk with a clatter of claws and laid itself down. "I've lived here long before there was a library," it said. "The proper name for this place is the Mountain of Desolation. Spirits of all kind would come here to let go of this world and return to the sky and mountains. And I was the one who granted their wish."

"Uh-huh," Korra said, her brow furrowing. "I don't get it."

"I think it's saying…" Asami frowned. "You were a death bringer."

"It was what they wanted: the sick and the aged and the ones who were just tired. Later, after the spirits built the hotel and after the humans built the library, I fulfilled people's desires for companionship or knowledge, and that is well and good. But I am still capable of doing my old duties. The human librarians were done with this world." It yawned. "But the poor things, they didn't know how to release themselves to the mountains. They never would have gotten anywhere if I hadn't helped."

"You mean you ate them," Korra said.

"What about the books?" Asami said. "Their work is gone."

"Is that surprising? Books, too, have a life." Desire flicked its long tail. "That is my story. What will the Avatar do to me, I wonder. I know they say she is an excellent fighter." It nudged Korra's hands with its head and looked up at her with an appealing face. She scratched its ears.

"I'm not going to do anything to you," she said. "I'll go back to Xi and tell him what happened to his friends. I think that'll make him feel better."

"Ooh, that's the spot. Now, I have a favor for you, Avatar. I once came to Xi Tong because I thought he might be willing to take the path his friends took. But in his fear, he struck me and knocked out two of my teeth. I have been looking for them ever since. If you could help me find them, I will give you and your lover a good reward."

"I can't guarantee anything, but I'll keep an eye out for it."

"Much appreciated, Avatar Korra." It reached up and licked her face. Then it came down from the desk and trotted over to Asami. It reared up on its hind legs and placed its claws on her shoulder. It opened its mouth wide in sharp-toothed feline grin. Asami put her gloved hand against its chest and tightened her fingers; but it only licked her hair and rubbed its face against hers. "My gift to the Avatar's beautiful friend," it said, and vanished into smoke.

* * *

It was morning again when they made it back to the surface of the library. Xi was already awake in his tower. They told him about what had transpired between them and the spirit. He sat behind his desk, twisting his pen around his fingers.

"You mean," he said, "that they wanted to die?" He reached for his collar and tugged at that a few times, then looked out the window. "Oh, Zhimin…"

"I'm sorry," Korra said. "I know it's hard to have to lose them like that."

"Lose them…!" Xi sighed and sagged into the back of his chair. "They've been gone for so long already and now they're gone, gone again. But thank you, Avatar. It's good to know."

"There's one thing I wanted to know," she said. "The spirit said it lost two teeth after the two of you met. Do you know where they might be?"

"I don't know, Avatar. But I wish you luck in finding it. If I remember, I was wandering in the western forest looking for one of my friends."

In the forest. Why not just point to the rest of the world and say, Look there! She took him by the hand and said, "I hope you come out of the tower more often. Maybe even leave the library! There's a lot out there."

"Do you still feel that way?" Asami said. Both Xi and Korra looked at her, confused. "I'm sorry, I just thought… Didn't Desire say that it thought you wanted what your friends had wanted?"

"I don't know how I was feeling then," said Xi, going purple in the cheeks. "And even if I did know—what kind of person are you to ask such things of me?"

* * *

Out in the forest, the sun had burned away some of the fog, leaving only a thin shroud hanging over the top of the trees. Korra was bent over at the waist, staring down at the dirt for the teeth. Asami was frowning at some flowers.

"Why did you say that to him?" Korra said.

"You're right," Asami said. She got down on her knees and swept at the dirt and grass. "I shouldn't have asked."

"No, that's… It's fine that you asked, but…" The calmness she had maintained since leaving Xi's office rippled, then broke. "So what if Xi was feeling a little upset when he met the spirit? You can't blame him. He's been through a lot. You can't go around accusing people of having feelings."

"I'm not accusing him of anything!" Asami said, standing up. "I don't trust that Desire spirit. It doesn't seem right that it went up to Xi and tried to kill him just because he was in despair. How do we know it's telling the truth?"

"I don't know," she said. "I trust it."

"I don't. I don't trust that spirit, at least." She touched her hair, where the spirit had licked her. Her hair had dried almost immediately, but she could still remember the thick, sagging lines of saliva hanging from its tongue, a feeling that it had been trying to tell her something specific. Something unpleasant. "It was just so… opportunistic. It reminded me of Varrick."

"You get along with him now."

"After he ruined my company! And don't forget how he played you during the Water Tribe's civil war."

"It did say it was originally a death bringer," Korra said. "But it said that it was helping people… 'fulfill their desires' through research and in the… Oh, ew! It's been making people write all that stuff about the Avatars!"

"Still think it's harmless?" Asami said.

"If there's one thing I've learned from Varrick, it's that you can't always call someone good or bad just because they do things," Korra said. "Okay, I know that sounded dumb."

"Uh-huh."

"But people want things and it's just… helping them get it. You can't stop people from wanting."

"Doesn't it bother you that it helped people kill themselves, though?" Asami said. "Do you think people really want that?"

"I mean—I guess," Korra said, staring harder at some rocks. Limestone? Shale? She should have paid more attention to her earthbending master. "If it had come up to me right after Zaheer, I don't know what it would've thought about me. But it wasn't what I really wanted, so it probably would've turned out okay."

"You wouldn't be the person deciding that," Asami said.

"Right. I get that." She looked up from the ground, the soft dirt and the damp leaves, and over to Asami. "I'm not going to kick it off the mountain. It wouldn't be the right thing to do."

"I know," Asami said. "I didn't meant to push you."

"You were just asking questions. It's no big deal." She went over to Asami and took her by the hand and said, "Do you want to check out those hot springs? I don't think we're going to find the teeth out here. Iroh said that things turn up in unexpected places in the spirit world."

"I could live with that," Asami said, and squeezed.

* * *

They spent the rest of the day going through the whole hot springs ritual: washing off in a bathroom, then stepping into a steaming hot pool of bubbling, sulfurous water, then having a long dinner in the dining hall afterwards. They played ping pong and cards with the spirits, then went back to their room. Asami worked on her blueprints, her books and clipboard spread out on the floor. Korra rested nearby on her stomach, propped up by her elbows. Asami began to pet her head and shoulders, then longer caresses down her spine.

"Bored?" Asami said.

"A little."

"Someone has to rebuild the city you keep destroying." She rolled Korra's shirt up and drew light circles on her bare skin. Then she lifted her hand. "I think I'll keep working. The whole point of coming here was to relax, after all."

"Hey! You don't find me relaxing?" She crawled a little closer. "Is there anything I can do?"

"I could use something to write on."

"Wow," Korra said. She crossed her arms, then figured, why not? She bet Asami wasn't going to expect it. "All right. Hands and knees?"

She didn't miss the way Asami's pencil skipped across the page, or the light red blush that pushed up to her cheeks. "Hands and knees."

Asami set her sketchpad on her back and kept drawing, taking care to rub at a knot in Korra's shoulder or to let her free hand wander along the back of Korra's neck, along her collar bone, across her breasts, deliberately ignoring her nipples. Korra could feel the pressure of the pencil as though it was another one of Asami's fingers pushing through the paper and wood board. She could feel Asami playing with her patience, drawing Korra out one light touch at a time, and didn't even try to resist it. It was more fun when she gave in: every grunt or sigh made Asami's pencil slow or made one of her perfect, clean lines wobble. "What are you working on?" she said.

"I don't remember my desks at home talking."

"This is the spirit world," Korra said. "Things are different here."

"True," Asami said, laughing. "They require a different kind of upkeep. Isn't that right?" She bent over Korra's back and kissed the knob of her neck. Her pencil rolled off Korra's back and hit the floor, going off somewhere when Asami squeezed her inner thigh, the hard point of her nails digging in. "Don't break position. I'll be mad if anything else falls off your back."

"Wait—will you?"

"Oh! No." She let go and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Sorry, I was just playing."

"It's fine, I just wasn't sure—whoa!" The board overbalanced, falling off her side and crashing into the floor. Korra looked up at Asami, and grinned. "I guess you'll have to punish me now?"

"For being a naughty desk?"

"When you put it that way, it sounds kind of weird."

But having Asami getting into it wasn't weird at all: the hard drive of Asami's hand inside her, giving up on holding position and letting Asami flip her over onto her back, legs on her shoulders as the hot intensity of her mouth made Korra come. Afterwards she could barely think. She felt like she might break into the fog, nothing but some smoke to be cleared away. Asami spooned her for a while, petting her hair and back, then got up to look for her pencil.

"Why are you worrying about that thing so much? Do you want to go back soon?" Korra said, sleepy.

"I just want to be able to stop thinking about having to do it," Asami said. "Where is that pencil? I can't work on civil engineering projects without it. I swear the paper can sense that I like automotive engineering better."

"That's funny."

"You've never seen my first drafts," she said. "Rest up. I'll join you in bed once I find it."

* * *

When Korra woke up, Asami was gone. It was night. The fog was a silver wall outside and seeped into the room through gaps in the wall, sneaking in the small gap under the doors. The spot next to her was cold. Damp circles on the floor on the side of the bed—tears? Dew?

Asami wasn't in the hotel. The library seemed empty, too. She yelled loud enough that Xi came down from his room up in the tower with a blanket around his shoulders and looking as though he expected someone to strike him down at any second, but nonetheless, out and about, and said, "Be quiet, please!"

"Sorry," she said. "Have you seen Asami come by here?"

"No," he said. "I was—"

"I don't have time for this," she said, and took off.

Now she was in the forest. Barely any light, no spirits, and no visibility. She lit a fire in her hand. It nearly went out the second she lit it, but came back strong. Down in the basement, the closer Desire was, the weirder light behaved. She bet the fog was its doing, too. She took a breath and ran to where the fog was thickest.

Soon the flame was barely a couple of sparks in her palm. The moonlight was stronger here. She kept pushing forward until she stumbled into a clearing. Asami stood in the middle of it in her nightclothes, on the arm of a shadowed man. Her cheeks were wet with tears even as she laughed.

"Asami?" Korra said.

"Korra?" Asami said. "What are you doing here? Daddy—Dad, there's someone I want you to meet. Don't try to attack her with anything this time, okay?" She giggled into her hand. "She's not going to get that, Dad. She didn't grow up listening to Please, Please Tell Me! on public radio."

"Are you all right?" Korra said.

"I'm fine. Look—it's my father! He's been in the spirit world the whole time. He escaped here just before Kuvira murdered him." She kissed the shadowy man's cheek. "I'm so glad I found you. Korra was right. You really find things here when you least expect it. … No, I haven't found Mom's earring. It might turn up if I lose my lucky pencil again."

"What is it saying to you?" Korra said.

"Oh, when I was little I dropped a washer down the hood of a prototype Satomobile… I wouldn't say I was 'inconsolable.' I knew it was just a washer."

"I'm sorry," Korra said. "I didn't know how close you were to your father. I didn't get that with my father."

Asami looked away from the shadow, frowning. "You can't say that. I've seen you and Tonraq together."

"I love him, but I was raised in White Lotus compounds," she said. "I didn't see much of him once I became the Avatar. We get along really well, but the only time I lived in the same home with him was when I went back to the Water Tribe after Zaheer. He used to come visit me at Master Katara's and teach me waterbending. It was kind of that way with you and Hiroshi, right? You spent a lot of time learning from him."

Asami touched her hair and looked away. "Uh-huh." The shadow leaned in close and seemed to speak to her. Asami nodded in understanding. "Korra, I know he's a spirit now. I'll go back to Republic City with you, but right now I want to catch up with Dad before we go."

She turned away from Korra and went deeper into the fog. Korra ran around her and blocked their path.

"Do you need something?" Asami said. "Can it wait for a while? Please, I really want to spend time with my Dad. You know I'd do the same for you."

"Hiroshi isn't in the spirit world!" she said. "I know you want him to be here, but it's just a trick. That's not him, Asami."

"You just didn't know him well enough to see him clearly."

"Do you know what I see?" Asami's face tightened, but she nodded, prompting her to go on. "It's someone shaped like a person, but he's just a big shadow. Like he's something out of a dream."

"I don't see that," she said. "You're lying to me." Korra took one step towards Asami and the shadow, then another. When she took a third, Asami said, "Stop! Don't come any closer."

"I'm sorry," she said. She lit a fire in her hand and leapt at the shadow and struck it cleanly with the flame. The shadow let out a scream and bolted out of Asami's grasp—her ragged "No!" tore through the forest, tearing from Asami's throat just as the fog whisked away, and the shadow, too. Now it was only Desire who stood before them, its great lion's mane framing its face, its osprey claws glinting in the moonlight. It offered her a smile. "Leave," she said. "Don't come near human visitors again."

"I'm far older than you can imagine, Avatar," it said. "I have been with humans and spirits since the first walked the earth. Why should I listen to you?"

She could feel it in her head, plucking through the memories like a zither, drawing one moment out of her after another: air pulling out of her lungs, the hideous blankness after Amon took her bending, the first sunless winter she spent at home, the first time she had lived at home for longer than a week or two since she was a child, soiling her bed in the middle of the night, cracking her head against the ice, legs crossing over one another like stupid chopsticks, spine on fire, blood boiling with poison…

She shut her eyes and centered herself on the rotten egg smell of the hot springs on the wind, on her feet sinking into the dirt, on her body here. That wasn't her anymore. She straightened up and said, "I don't want to fight you. But the people who visit the spirit world aren't yours to manipulate. Leave them alone. I won't say it again."

Its back legs coiled and it lunged at her, its wicked talons outstretched and aimed at her face. She stepped out of the way, flowing with the wind to arrive at its back, then using the momentum from her spin to launch into a spinning kick, fire sheathing her leg. For such a large, muscular spirit, it proved sinuous: twisting out of range of her first kick, ducking before her jab could land, and smacking her into the ground with a swipe of his claws. She slammed her foot into the ground, just enough to get a stone block up to catch Desire's jaw as it tried to pounce on her. She sprang off her arms high into an axe kick. Her heel chopped the top of its head with a clean, cracking sound.

Now Desire slunk back, shaking its head and grimacing.

"Ready for more?" Korra said. "Or are you going to listen to me and stay away from humans like I asked you?"

It snorted and swished its tail. "We'll meet again, Avatar. You'll reconsider. You'll need me, and I don't hold grudges."

"We'll see," she said.

It retreated into the forest. The fog closed back in around them. Korra knelt besides Asami. She had stopped crying. Instead she kept looking around her, as though she might find the secret passage her father had disappeared into. She clutched at her collar, her wrist resting right over her heart. "Korra?"

"That's me. Are you okay?"

"It was so real," she said. "Even though I knew it couldn't be true, I accepted it. I'm such an idiot."

"No," Korra said. "No, that's not true. You were crying the entire time. I think you knew he wasn't really there."

The expression on Asami's face was bewildered. She took a few horrible breaths, each one deeper and more miserable, chest heaving like a trapped bird's, until Korra took her into an embrace. The breaths came faster and louder, until finally she started to sob with ferocious tears flowing out of her eyes.

"It's okay," Korra said. "I got you. I got you. You have me, okay?"

* * *

They left the hotel and library at dawn for another part of the spirit world: a field of almond trees in bloom and below, a carpet of daffodils. The spirits living there were a cheerful bunch without much of an attention span: they'd swarm around her and Korra, then fly off mid-sentence, and come back surprised by the fact of humans! Humans, here!

In truth, Asami was beginning to feel the same way: an intruder and an interloper, borrowing material comforts that were never meant for her to share. And she was beginning to miss her cars, too. After a few hours of lazing around in the hot sunshine, blowing flower petals off Korra's laughing face, she said, "Do you mind if we go back tomorrow?"

She expected resistance; but instead Korra shrugged and said, "Yeah, sure. We've been gone for a while by now, I bet."

"How long?"

"A few days? Or… weeks? Months?"

"Korra!"

"Okay, I've lost track of things," she said. "But it was good though, right? I really liked spending time here with you. Even if the library sucked."

"Tell me about it," Asami said. But she had been thinking about this, too, while watching the shadows of the clouds move across Korra's arms and chest. She took Korra's hand. "I didn't mind it when it was happening. The spirit was right. That was what I wanted."

"Asami," Korra said, sitting up, her face flexing itself into concern.

"It's not what you think," Asami said quickly, "I found its teeth while I was looking for my pencil. I went to the library to give them back, and it showed up and took them. It said that it wanted to give me… a gift, if I was willing to accept it. I don't know what would have happened to me or how long it would have kept me, but I knew the risks. Although next time I want a full list of them in writing." There were some newly litigious types in Republic City. She could probably get some lessons from them.

Korra turned over in the mass of flowers. Yellow pollen smeared across her shoulders and back. "Did you not want me to butt in?"

"I don't know where I'd be right now if you hadn't come for me."

"That's me," Korra said. "Just doing my job as your loyal girlfriend and personal Avatar."

"I'm sure could find a way to mass produce you."

"Hey! You can't do that!"

"When I think about it, the Avatar spirit does it for free, anyway."

"Tell it to step up production, then. Only one every hundred years and region-exclusive? Someone's slacking off."

"It seems to be just about perfect to me," she said.

She ran her fingers along the part of Korra's hair, then the side of her face. Her face had a yellow tint from the daffodils, and her smile was just a little bashful. She ran her thumb across Korra's lips and gasped when Korra took her her hand in both of hers and kissed her palm, then her wrist, then each finger. Then she took Asami's other hand and held onto it without saying anything for a long while. She looked up when Asami tapped her chin, her face clear and shining with youth. It was a look of receptiveness Asami had seen only in bed before, but untinged by concupiscence: a willingness to trust, to give herself over. Asami ran her hands through Korra's hair again, running her nails along her scalp. Then she kissed her, kissed her again, helping Korra open up her jacket and unsheathe her legs from her boots.

"Well?" she said, naked and honestly a little anxious there were innocent spirits spying on them. She really hadn't thought this through. "What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Korra said. Her mouth worked; she was obviously trying to avoid gaping. She stripped off her gloves. "You're gorgeous. Obviously. Beyond that. Obviously! Do you mind—do you mind if I touch?"

"That's what I want," she said. She guided Korra's hand to her chest. "Do you feel that?"

"Yeah."

She leaned in, her heart beating hard. "Show me."

* * *

Nearby the Republic City spirit portal was a waterfall. They left their things by the portal and went to the top of the ledge. Korra had to shout to make herself heard.

"You can keep breathing!"

"What?" Asami said.

"It's a special kind of water. I think. The spirits were telling me about it—you can go all the way down to the bottom and inhale the water."

"Korra, I can't hear you," she said. "Waterbreathing? Is that some kind of bending technique?"

Korra took a deep breath, ready to shout louder, then remembered a trick Jinora had told her about, a technique developed to get some quiet time when all her siblings were in full noisemaker mode. She surrounded them in a sphere of air, the outer layers thick and insulating, and the inside normal.

"You mentioned you wanted to see the bottom of the ocean?" she said. "Well, the spirits told me you can breathe in the water. I know it's not an ocean, but I thought you'd want to see it."

"Did a fish spirit tell you this?" Asami said, raising an eyebrow.

"Might have some fish ancestry somewhere. I don't know. I'm not invited to its New Year dinners."

Asami looked down the ledge, then at Korra. "All right," she said. "Let's do it."

"Okay." She dispelled the silencing sphere and held onto Asami's hand. "You won't regret it."

"What?"

"I said, let's do it!"

The water was freezing, cold enough that jumping into it felt like leaping into a circle of sharp needles. The bottom of the lake glowed with crystal light, and the rocky sides were covered with strange lifeforms and bulbous, crystal formations. Asami's eyes were still shut. She opened one slowly. She was still holding her breath—they both were. Korra let go of the air she was holding and took her first breath. Her lungs filled not with water, but with something a little thicker than air. She gave Asami a thumbs up. Asami, always a good sport, took her first breath. A few more breaths, and she was confident enough to say, "Can you hear me? This is beautiful. Thank you for bringing me here."

Below the surface and surrounded by water, the words had a power that made it difficult for Korra to answer. She floated there like a stunned fish, then squeezed Asami's hand. "Thanks for coming with me."

They spent a long time down in the lake. They took the long way back up to the spirit portals, their hair dripping wet and shivering from the cold and glad, gladder than anything, to have come here together.


End file.
